IBA registrar murder attempt: Students, activists demand arrests

SUKKUR: A huge rally was organised by students of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Sukkur, social activists and other NGOs to demand the arrest of the suspects who attacked the institute’s registrar on December 8.

IBA registrar Zahid Hussain Khand was shot twice when he was on his way to the institute. He is being treated at the Aga Khan University Hospital as his femur or leg bone was shattered. According to Khand, he had given a statement in court against Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid MPA Sheheryar Mahar, saying that 150 of his men had attacked IBA land on April 14 in an attempt to illegally take over it.

Sukkur Shehri Ittehad chairman Maulana Obaidullah Bhutto, Citizen Action Committee’s Musharraf Mehmood Qadri, Tanzeem-e-Pakistan head Dr Saeed Awan, Sukkur Blood and Drugs Donating Society president Dr Muhammad Naeem, former naib nazim Ghulam Murtaza Ghanghoro led the rally from Muhammad Bin Qasim Park to the press club.

They called the alleged land mafia responsible for the attack “enemies of education” and shouted that they would not tolerate “the monarchy of landlords”.

After they reached the press club, the protesters staged a sit-in and condemned the inefficiency of the police.

IBA Sukkur is the largest and most prestigious educational institute in northern Sindh, said those leading the demonstration. They only want to take over the institute’s land which is why they attacked Khand, they claimed.

The protesters held DPO Sukkur Aitzaz Goraya and other police officials responsible for “the attackers roaming about freely despite cases and FIRs filed against them”.

They warned that they would stage a huge sit-in at the Sukkur Bypass if the culprits are not arrested soon.

For his part, the MPA has said that he was not in the country when the incident took place.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2010.